The U.S. Supreme Court will not hear an appeal from Indiana residents who want to extend their property rights to the state’s Lake Michigan shoreline.
According to the Associated Press, the high court of America denied the petition by two landowners in Long Beach, Indiana, who live adjacent to the lake. The Northwest Indiana Times was the first to report the decision.
The ruling is a win for all beach walkers and effectively a public agreement by the court with Indiana’s Supreme Court, which ruled that the Lake Michigan shoreline is open to all in February 2018.
The decision comes after the U.S. Supreme Court delayed a decision in November 2018 to give the Indiana Attorney General’s office a couple extra months to craft a response to Don and Bobbie Gunderson’s request that the Supreme County hear their case.
The 4-0 ruling by the Indiana Supreme Court set the ordinary high water mark, or the line on the shore created by the water’s fluctuating levels, as the dividing line between the state-owned land under the lake, and what private property owners can claim.
In Michigan, this issue was decided in 2005 in favor of beach walkers. The Michigan Supreme Court ruled that the public has a right to walk along the lakeshore, as long as they stay below the lake’s high-water mark.